ALBANY COUNTY – Cameras monitoring public places have become commonplace in American society. They are found in shopping malls, convenience stores, gas stations, and even mounted atop police cruisers.

The Albany County Sheriff’s Department purchased such a device last summer, said Lieutenant Michael Monteleone. It is called the Mobile Plate Hunter 900.

The system is designed to recognize a series of numbers, Monteleone said.

Two digital cameras on the roof of a patrol car are connected to a laptop computer within the car. The cameras scan license-plate numbers and compare the numbers to data that is pre-loaded into the computer, he said. The data is generated by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, and indicates stolen, revoked, or suspended registrations, he said. It is updated on a daily basis.
The system can be programmed "for multi-state use," Monteleone said. The sheriff’s department has programmed only New York State information. There can be an increase in "faulty readings" with multi-state use, he said.
"The computer and cameras can instantly compare to the database," Monteleone said.

If a scanned plate number matches one in the database, the system alerts the police officer driving the car, Monteleone said. It is the officer’s responsibility to verify the information provided by the system through the patrol station, he said.

The device used by the Albany County Sheriff’s Department was purchased through a New York State grant as part of a pilot program, Monteleone said.
"I don’t think it cost the county anything," he said. Each unit retails for $21,000.
The Mobile Plate Hunter 900 is a product of Remington ELSAG Law Enforcement Systems, based in Madison, N.C. According to the website for the company, "The system alarms within a second of identifying a plate on the hotlist and can process hundreds of plates per minute. An image and GPS [Global Positioning System] coordinates of every plate scanned are stored and can be referenced later."

The company’s president, Mark Windover, could not be reached for comment.
Monteleone said that his department’s unit is "usually used every shift," and reads an average of 9,000 to 13,000 plates every month, helping to make anywhere from 10 to 25 arrests per month.
"It’s a variable number," he said.

One such arrest was that of Wendy Jacobson, of Altamont. Jacobson was arrested on Jan. 17 in the driveway of her home at 130 Maple Ave.

According to the sheriff’s report, she was arrested for third-degree unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to deliver license and registration, and driving with a suspended registration, all misdemeanors, and driving an uninsured vehicle, and operating a motor vehicle without an inspection sticker, both infractions.

The sheriff’s department was alerted by the Mobil Plate Hunter 900 that the vehicle’s registration was suspended, the arrest report says. Jacobson was found to have a suspended registration, and a suspended license, both due to a lapse in insurance, and the registration plates were confiscated by the sheriff’s department, the report says.

Jacobson could not be reached for comment.

Monteleone said that Jacobson had most likely been pulling into her driveway, and the alert from the system came after she arrived at her home.

No arrests can be made for a system alert of a suspended, revoked, or stolen registration for a vehicle that is parked in a private driveway, Monteleone said.

The system can serve up to four million lines of data, and can combine data from multiple sources, the Remington ELSAG website states.

The Mobile Plate Hunter 900 device pictured on the website is shown hidden within the lights of a patrol car. The Albany County Sheriff’s Department device is not configured this way. It is simply two small cameras affixed to the roof of the car.

This allows the device to be installed on different vehicles, Monteleone said. One camera is directed to scan plates on cars parked on the side of the street, and the other camera scans the plates of oncoming traffic, he said.
"It recognizes in the area of 90 percent of the plates it passes," Monteleone said.
The device has been "very useful," he said.